The Dylan Gemelli Podcast - Episode #87 Are anabolic steroids REALLY that dangerous??

Episode Date: February 2, 2026

Episode #87 Are anabolic steroids REALLY that dangerous?  One of the most prevalent problems I have dealt with over the past decade is anabolic steroid misuse, abuse and MISLEADING information.  FAR too many people fall into a trap of injury from extremely harmful and misguided information from influencers as well as groups of bodybuilders attempting to make names for themselves by giving off information, not only encouraging steroid use but also assuring others that there are little to no risks or harm with use.  This could not be further from the truth!  I spent years coaching, studying and understanding every aspect and corner of anabolic steroids and am here today to give the FACTS about the TRUE dangers of use and the REAL long term ramifications of what can happen when using them!  I am NOT here to tell you what you want to hear, only what you NEED to hear!       Today's episode is sponsored by TONUM!    TONUM supplements for the MIND AND BODY!   USE CODE "DYLAN" to save 10%!!  https://www.tonum.com/DYLAN   _______________________________________________________________________________ To PURCHASE MITOPURE visit Dylan's landing page and use code DYLAN to save 20% OFF!! https://shop.timeline.com/DYLAN   Get the Apollo Neuro for $90 OFF!! USE CODE GEMELLI to save https://apolloneuro.com/gemelli     MESCREEN: The world's first and only at home mitochondrial efficiency test Save $100 with CODE   DYLAN   https://mescreen.com/cart/47561239626013:1?discount=&ref=DYLAN       HIRE DYLAN ON THE MINNECT APP HERE: expert.minnect.com/@DylanGemelli     Follow Dylan on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Tiktok @dylangemelli and PLEASE SUBSCRIBE and leave reviews!!   MAKE SURE TO GO TO DYLAN'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL for MORE video content!!    https://www.youtube.com/@DylanGemelliBiohacking Email Dylan for booking, collaborations and/or to apply for the Dylan Gemelli Podcast [e-mail] Visit Dylan's Homepage https://dylangemelli.com

With over 20 years in the supplement industry, I have seen and heard it all. Empty promises, tricky marketing, wasted money, leaving so much left to be desired and creating feelings of resentment. Thankfully, I'm positive by nature and stay on the lookout for the next breakthrough product. And then I found Tonum, a science-driven wellness company built on over a decade of research into natural solutions for metabolic and brain health. Tonum understands that it takes a mind and body connection to obtain full health alignment. With their featured products, Modus and Neuro, they address both aspects of this connection. First, modus, an all-natural supplement designed to support fat loss, metabolic function, and energy.

Then Neuro, a cognitive performance supplement designed to support focus, memory, and long-term brilliance. Tonum has brought back my trust in the supplement industry with natural evidence-based. ingredients that support long-term outcomes. So because of this, I want to share them with the world. Use my code Dylan for an extra 10% off and start to treat your mind and body today with Tonum. Are anabolic steroids really that dangerous? Can they be used safely, effectively? Can you actually feel great on them long-term and live a long life when using them? Well, I can tell you this right now. I know many of you have been told that there's little to no side effects. They're mild. You don't need to worry about this. You don't need to worry about that. And I can tell

you right now that is non-factual. And I am going to get into every single layer of what I've learned over the past 15 to 20 years and break all of this down and give the most clear and concise understanding that I could possibly give to everyone. So one of the things that I've had to deal with since I first came into this community of bodybuilders, steroid users, and started to provide the education that I had been doing from all of my studies and coaching was this misunderstanding, misconveyance and lack of long-term thinking or care when it came to anabolic steroid use. And then the toxicity of the community that is involved.

And many people that will say, well, you're not big enough. So there's no way that you could be discussing steroids or telling us how to use them or you don't have this science background, et cetera. But then you're not big enough. And it's this constant fight and argument that you simply can't win. So I'm going to give you the perspective of somebody that's been coaching that's been through the ringer on all aspects of science, someone that's unfortunately used many of these myself and every other thing in between. So first things first are anabolic steroids dangerous? Yes, they are absolutely one million trillion percent dangerous. Now, can they be used in a safer manner that could potentially lower or mitigate side effects? Oftentimes, yes, absolutely. A lot of the time what I have found and seen over all of these years is that 90-some percent of the serious problems that you see that occur are people that simply just don't know what they're doing. and or are just overly abusive with what they're doing. Example, bodybuilders oftentimes,

especially younger guys, will think they're invincible. They have no true gauge or understanding of how these really work and the ramifications that it's having on themselves. A lot of signs and symptoms will hide themselves internally. Now, you'll see the basics. For instance, an oral steroid has to become C-Semitism. 17 alpha alkylated so it can pass through the liver. Otherwise, it's not going to make it through. Well, when it goes through that process and that change, it has become heavily methylated,

meaning it's going to thrash your liver, your kidneys, your blood pressure is going to probably skyrocket on a lot of these. It may not on all of them, depending on the dose and the compound itself. You're probably going to see a lot of changes in cholesterol. There's certainly potential heart issues that can come up. I've seen many, many people develop atherosclerosis, getting plaque and their arteries build up and so on and so forth. The list is long, okay? And so it's something to be very, very mindful of and to understand that there is a significant amount of problems that can occur. Now, when you're using an oral steroid, for example, like I'm talking about, you're going to want to be using heavy protectants for your liver, for your kidneys. Like I said, there's all in one

protectants that would come out, et cetera, but you're still going to experience damage. I don't care how many protectants you run, I don't care how big the promises are, I don't care how good the marketing is. You will not be able to completely stop the damage that is being done. Now, your liver, for example, is a very resilient organ. It's like the Wolverine organ. It can repair itself continuously, but you can only thrash it for so long. And the blood panels that I have seen, because I coached and monitored blood panels for years and years and years, and when you see these elevated ALT and AST numbers that are at levels that are, I mean, supremely dangerous. And yes, eventually they can come back down, but you've got to consider doing that over time,

the beating that it's going to take and the long-term effect it's going to have. That's just one small thing. I would like to discuss the suppression of testosterone. So you'll hear these terms being shut down. What does that mean? It means suppressing your natural testosterone. So when you flood your body with exogenous amounts of testosterone, it then forgets how to produce it because it's producing so much at once and it stops. When you use anabolic steroids, it does this.

It shuts your testosterone production down. So when you stop using them because you do have to stop, then your body's just done. It's not producing it. So that's why people have to run a post-cycle therapy. Now, people use products like clom it and nests. Novodex and now more recently in Clomophen and Teramiphon to kickstart their natural testosterone production. You have to understand something, though. That's not going to keep working. When you start cycling steroids, you are going to end up putting yourself on TRT testosterone replacement therapy

sooner than later. That's just part of what goes along with this. Some people, depending on their age, are going to need it right away. Some people might be able to bounce back a couple times. Younger guys have a better chance of bouncing back, but they're causing way, way, way more harm by using steroids too young. And that's a whole different topic that I can just kind of talk a little bit about here shortly. But when you continuously suppress your natural testosterone production, you are going to be spending the rest of your life on TRT. Now, I am a proponent of TRT if you need it, if you physically need it. But if you don't and you're causing yourself these problems, and issues, a lot of people don't understand what goes along with putting yourself on TRT.

I've touched on this many, many times, but you have to understand you're going to be likely injecting for life. There is Kaiser-Tex now, which is an oral form of testosterone, and they're obviously going to be coming out with more things. There's creams, there's pellets, how affected those are. That's up for debate. That's not what this particular episode is about. But when you put yourself on this, for instance, it's going to make it very, very, very, very, very, very difficult to stay fertile, for example. I'm not saying you can't. I've seen plenty of people on TRT have kids,

but it's certainly going to make it more difficult. A lot of younger guys will say, well, I don't want kids. And you think that in your early 20s or whatnot, but you don't understand that things do change. And that's going to be a potential problem as you get older. And, you know, injecting forever, having to do consistent and constant blood work on it.

And potential side effects. if you go too high, a lot of people run TRT too high. Sometimes it just doesn't agree with people's bodies. And there are so many things to consider doing this the rest of your life. It's not for everybody. It's just not. Just like everything's not for everybody. Certain things just don't agree with people.

And I just, I don't find it wise whatsoever in any way, shape, or form can be used in steroids at this point. I know what I went through. I know what I coached. I know what I said. If I could go back and change it, I would have never touched one. And I'm glad that I understand and can educate. But I certainly wouldn't be teaching people, you know, how to coach them on it, how to even run it more effectively. I know it's like, well, I was doing good work because I was teaching people how to be safer with it.

But at the same time, there's still an encouragement of using it. And I just don't find it wise or necessary whatsoever. There's too many problems that can happen. I talk to you about the oral steroids and the many different things that they caused, and then we could look at some injectables. You have different types of steroids. So your D.H.T. steroids, which is dihydro testosterone, you're looking at compounds that are going to be more for the cutting, more for the aesthetics type of thing.

But some of the big problems with those is potential hair loss. And if you're prone to male pattern ball and this, these are going to just destroy your hair line. They're just going to wreck it. Okay. and then there's a lot of aggression more so on those, although there's other compounds that do cause you to be quite aggressive. DHT compounds can cause you to be very, very aggressive.

There is, of course, the suppression. In all steroids, there's the chance of more anger and oily skin, more acne type of things like that. There's always the potential for loss of sleep. And in some of these DHTs are not ones that convert to estrogen, but we'll get to other ones that do convert to estrogen. so there can be estrogen issues as well. And that's where you would look at something like testosterone,

which is a high converter of estrogen. Okay. And so when many men, when they run steroids, will take an estrogen blocker or an aromatase inhibitor. Now, aromatase inhibitors would be like your arimidex and your aromason and then potentially letrosol. And so if you're looking at clinics and stuff, If it's anastresol would be a Rimmat X, and that's what you're going to be prescribed,

and Examastain would be what they would term for aromacin, but you pretend probably would never get put on that or prescribed it. They just don't prescribe it. So these can have potential negative effects. You try to control your estrogen, but then there's other side effects. And then you have to consider this too. Oftentimes men will crush their estrogen, and that can be a whole other issue. So elevated estrogen,

can increase your blood pressure, you'll have water retention. It can really throw you off mentally. It can be depressing. And you could develop male, basically male breasts, gynecumastia. So that's a whole other thing that you have to be careful of. But if you crush your estrogen, you can also have a loss of libido, just like you can with high estrogen, depression, and inability to gain muscle. It's a mess. So all of these things that you have to worry about, out. Then you get into harder compounds, like your decadurable and like your Tren below, for example, that everybody wants to use. So Tren is essentially termed the king of steroids. However, it is the most dangerous. There is no good reason on the planet Earth to ever go near it.

It can cause multitudes of side effects from anger to night sweats to depression to throwing you so far off mentally that I've seen people lose jobs. get in serious bites, ruin relationships, have different types of mental disorders on top of the insomnia and everything else in between high cholesterol, high blood pressure. It is a brutal monster. When I used it, I remember, because I'm very, very well in control of my emotions in general. And I remember sitting on my couch being depressed and crying for really no reason. I mean, very, very little reason. And I was creating all of these things and these. problems and I didn't know where my mind was going. Sometimes people get so overly aggressive.

I've seen them commit crimes. This is not an exaggeration. This is all factual. When you look at blood markers, even when you use more moderate wiser doses and you cycle properly over time, more often than not, you just see this degradation of so many different markers. And neurologically, there is so many different issues that I've seen. and people don't test the right test. Steroid users don't look at the intricate cholesterol test. And this is really for all people in general. You need to be looking at a cardiac IQ test.

You don't just worry about LDL HDL-HDL triglycerides. You have to cover all the bases. You need to look at your APOB because that can definitely get hurt on steroids. And you need to be aware of it and watch it and monitor it. You need to look at your particle sizes. You need to look at your LP Little A. All of these things are of the most vital importance. And hormone imbalance can cause so many other issue. And I also see a lot of people that use these and they eat

improperly. They don't work out. They don't train and they cause other problems. A lot of times you can gain weight way too fast. And that puts all kinds of pressures on your joints, your ligaments, your tendons, and everything in between. And then you see a lot of steroid users that as they age, they get a lot of nagging injuries. Their bodies break down. They can't hold onto the size. And it's very, very bad to carry too much size and too much weight for too long. On top of there's a point where you eat too much and it's too hard on you.

You don't want to do it. And I see some of these guys that eat five, six, seven thousand calories a day because they want to get as big as they can. And they don't understand their ramifications of what they are doing to themselves long term. There's so many different people. people that will get on these like weight gainers and they're just filled with just things that are terrible for you absolutely horrible. I see everything that goes on. People that call this thing

called a dirty bulk. So they'll run a steroid that is meant for increasing size. A lot of these are highly estrogenic. So they're going to increase a lot of water weight, which is already bad because it's putting so much pressure on you. But then they eat however they want. They call it a dirty bulk and basically they're eating everything under the sun. Well, ask yourself this. If you're running steroids, which are causing cholesterol problems, heart problems, and everything in between blood pressure and then you're compounding it with these horrific foods and things that are terrible for you, what do you think it's going to happen?

What would you assess a blood panel is going to look like or what you're doing to yourself internally? Because sometimes externally you can't see the things that are going on internally and then you go look and oftentimes it's, well, what just happened here or it's too late. there's a lot of people out there that tell you that somebody like me that's actually being honest here is doesn't know what they're talking about. They're fear mongering or whatnot. Let you guys that follow me know. I have, I mean, what do I have to gain or lose here?

I'm not selling any products. There's nothing here to gain or lose. I am trying to not lose sleep by telling people the truth and help people to take care of themselves. and avoid things that are just unnecessary and be honest about what they're going to do. Can you get huge on steroids? Yes. Can you get extremely strong on steroids?

Absolutely. Can you change the way your body looks entirely? Oftentimes, yes, depending on what you're using if you're eating right and training, right? It's not just you take these in their magic. But what is the risk versus reward? What are you sacrificing? What are you costing yourself?

What are the amount of years that you are taken off of your life? Because I can certainly tell you that take, and steroids is not going to extend your life. Can you do it in a more safe manner? Yes. Can you do it more effectively? Yes. But are you still going to sacrifice years off of your life?

Yes. Yes. You are not going to take these to live longer. So you have to ask yourself, is it worth it to look great for a few years? Because this does come and go. It's not like you use these and then you just stay looking the way that you did either. Is it worth it to have? all of these side effects, which you're going to endure and you don't even essentially get to

enjoy how you look a lot of the times because you're dealing with so many different side effects. Is it worth the changes that you're going to have hormonally that throw you off mentally that make you in a wrong and bad state of mind? Is it worth it to really kind of ruin your quality of life long term as well? And even during, you know, my hope was always, oh, I'm going to feel so great taking these and there are certainly moments in time where you do. But if you go back and really be honest with yourself, if you're being honest and you go back and you assess

and I look at notes I took and remember, I felt way worse more often than not. And some of the times when I say, oh, I looked my best, you ask any bodybuilder, anybody they'll say when they looked their best, they felt their worst because it was dealing with so many different things. And then also, you know, a lot of guys will take either pain,

medications with steroids because of things they're dealing with, and some will take cocaine with steroids or illicit drugs. This will ensure you killing yourself. It absolutely will. You may get away with it for a little while, but a lot of like the WWF guys that you saw dying very young. It's because they abused pain pills while they used steroids. It wasn't just the steroid. You certainly that contributed a lot to it. But it was using other things with it that was like, the ultimate just, it's going to kill you. It was like the witch's brew of shortening your life. And you saw it time and time and time and time again.

And then you also see bodies just completely break down. So many guys that were so huge and then you see them in their 40s and their 50s and their 60s and they're just a shell of themselves. And was it worth it? If you really want a pro card, I asked this to so many people, how many guys with pro cards actually make money? And even if you are making money, is it worth it to sacrifice your life? I mean, I guess to each their own.

I'm not here to lecture, scold, throw stones. I've made a million mistakes in my life, but I am here to educate and help and provide a voice of reason to people that are considering this. Now, people that are too young, I mean, this is just the worst setup for failure. if you are too young to use steroids. What is too young?

Under 30 years old, most people are not fully hormonally developed until their later 20s, and that's why I always told guys, if you're under 30, you are going to make a mess and destroy yourself. I have had more clients than anything come to me in their later 30s, 40s, 50s,

and it's all from using steroids at a young age and wanting me to fix them and help them. And a lot of times, it's not easy or not attainable to the level that you would want. There's certainly things that can be done, but you start shutting off your growth plates early and you don't reach your full potential on muscle growth and letting your body fully develop. And it's a shame what I've seen.

It's a terrible shame. I've seen so many guys ruin their lives. And they want to argue and guys that have no experience doing this or, you know, it's a terrible shame. And I always urge him, just listen, please. And then I see a lot of women try to run very. harsh compounds that turn them into having male attributes and some of the stuff you can't reverse. Some of it you can. But I've seen a lot of women get stuck with pretty deep voices, strange hair growth, a lot of male attributes that you don't want. I have always been the proponent of

no steroids for women and I really am for anybody now. Some women will use lighter compounds, but I would really think twice, either men or women. There's so many different things you can do to look good. Just eating right and training right, you can look damn good. You really can. And then you have to ask yourself, what are you doing it for? Who are you doing it for? Why?

When I asked myself those questions, I realized I was trying to do it for other people. Was it really for me or was it to build a persona or a image of myself that was, what's it worth? What's it worth? Because it's never good enough for anybody else anyway. So what are you gain? I don't know. I don't know.

Does other people's opinions provide that much value to how you live or you waking up in the morning? Is that what you think about? I had to ask myself these questions. That's why I'm saying. I asked myself these things and I realized, what am I doing here? What am I doing here? And why? I'm shortening my life.

I don't want to do that. I don't want to do it anymore. And I want to help others to prevent them from doing the same. Look, you do what you want to do. with your lives and some people are going to watch or listen to this and call me every name in the book and whatever. I really don't care. I'm too old to worry about stuff like that. And if you have your opinion and your belief on it, that is fine. Everybody deserves their own opinion and belief. And everybody can do as they will. And I encourage you to just be smart, be careful

to your research, understand there's a lot that goes on here. It's not just what your steroid dealer tells you what Joe Schmoe says on the internet because he's big like he knows. I've seen a lot of guys that had a lot of followers die young or come up with a lot of conditions, given pretty reckless and bad advice and probably took a lot of people down with them. I don't know everything. I don't ever claim to know everything, but I know how many years I've gone through this and what I've seen and what I've been around.

So my goal is to be honest and to try to help and protect everybody from making a lot of the mistakes I've either made or seen myself. So I hope that was beneficial, helpful. I hope the guidance provide you a little bit of insight from somebody that's actually been through it and been there. That being said, stay tuned for plenty more to come. Dylan Jameli, sign it off.